Developing and Validating a Japanese Version of the Multidimensional Attitude toward Ambiguity Scale (MAAS)

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic clearly shows, we are living in an age of uncertainty and ambiguity. This study develops a Japanese version of the Multidimensional Attitude toward Ambiguity Scale (MAAS), which was originally developed by Lauriola et al. (2016) and has better psychometrics and reproducibility than previously developed personality trait scales for ambiguity. It assesses three factors: discomfort with ambiguity, moral absolutism/splitting, and need for complexity and novelty. To test our newly developed MAAS, we asked 347 participants (147 females and 200 males, Mage = 39.07, SDage = 10.58) to complete a back-translated Japanese version of the MAAS online. The Japanese version was found to have sufficient or good internal consistency, retest reliability, and construct validity. We newly found that there were correlations between attitudes toward ambiguity and several scales (e.g., subscales of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Minimalist Well-Being Scale), and that there are differences in the scores of our Japanese study participants and the Italian samples in the literature. We hope that our Japanese version of the MAAS will be actively used in future cross-cultural comparative research.